Andrew Z. Fire studied under Nobel laureate Phillip A. Sharp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and worked alongside Sydney Brenner at England's Medical Research Council. In 1998, Fire discovered ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference, a process by which double stranded RNA inhibits gene expression. Their work effectively created a new field of research, allowing scientists to study what myriad genes do, by controlling this otherwise natural method of switching genes off. Fire and Craig C. Mello shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2006, and the accompanying $1.4-million remuneration. Fire now works at Stanford University -- where he was born.